Jetboil Sol Ti Pots – ever had problems?

Not saying it was yours, Brad.

I couldn’t locate anything thru BPL search or Google, but it was years ago and might’ve been from an Amazon customer review or one of the gear review sites, etc.

I’m actually a huge fan of JB after having dismissed them for quite some time because they just didn’t look as sturdy as MSR stuff… the plastic pot support base having been particularly off-putting. However, I’ve got a MiniMo that I’ve used quite a bit with zero problems, also used just a couple of weekends ago in the Adirondacks with a Sumo cup (1.8L) that was used a bunch for snow melting duties for 3 of us.

My son accidentally burnt up my Jetboil Sol Ti. Thankfully, it wasn’t super bad, but he melted the cosy, the “orange plastic thingy” and the piezo pretty bad, and the fins on the stove got a little melty too… And for those interested in how he did it… when we packed it up in his pack, I slid the cozy down a little bit so it would fold over and cover the bottom of the pot (I never use those stupid bowls that attach to the bottom). When he used the stove though, he didn’t slide the cozy back up, and the cozy trapped a bot of heat…

Anyway, I hated to see the pot go to waste, and figured I could rip the fins off, and use the pot. But, the metal attachment piece at the bottom is so narrow, most stoves wouldn’t slide up inside it easily, so I got my dremmel out and cut it off! It went pretty well, however, because the Jetboil’s flame is so concentrated in the middle, the heat caused the middle of the pot to have a slight bow, out. Before it didn’t matter, but now that it actually rests on the bottom of the pot, it is just a slight bit wobbly when setting it down on a flat, hard surface. Anyway, I ended up giving it to a buddy that didn’t have any gear. He came on a hike with me a couple months ago and used the pot and it worked great for him. Win/win! :)

And the Al strip just pulled off? Hardly a good weld in that case! I am fascinated.

Any chance of a really close-up photo of the bottom of the pot where the welds were? That would be really interesting to see. Did the Al actually weld to the Ti, or did the Al just sort-of blend into the titanium oxide layer on the surface? I have tried spot welding Ti to Ti myself, and most of the time it was just the oxide layers sticking together.

Cheers

Not saying it was yours, Brad.

Not at all Bob, I didn’t take your words that way and apologize if you thought I did based on my response.

I’ve been backpacking since 1975, and I truly think the Jetboil is one of the best technologies I’ve seen in all that time. I got my first in 2006. I’m a fan, I just don’t think the Ti version is worth the bother and expense.

Brad

Roger, yes, the strip just pulled right off. I grabbed the flat head screwdriver thinking I would have to pry it, but once I pried just enough to grab it with my fingers it pulled right off… much easier than I was anticipating. As can be seen but the strips in the photo, it broke a couple of times, but not at the weld when pulling, just in the middle of the strip (likely because it was “tacked” down in a circle and I was pulling straight up). I am not familiar with welds, but I must say now that I have pulled it off (so easily) that I wouldn’t call this a weld… I always thought of a weld of blending 2 metals into 1, but this was not the case. This seemed to be more tacked into place (or stuck together like paint) rather than truly welded.

As for pictures, like I said, I gave the pot away afterwards. I could get him to bring it by and take more pictures, however, after pulling it off I used the dremmel to polish it down smooth.

I wouldn’t call this a weld… I always thought of a weld of blending 2 metals into 1,
Like I suggested: I think they just bonded to the titanium oxide layer, not to the titanium metal.
I put some of my attempts at spot welding Ti under the microscope. Most depressing. I think Jetboil were just a little gung-ho about their process at the start and did not check it properly. The science/engineering literature makes it clear that such a weld is DIFFICULT.

Cheers

I slid the cozy down a little bit so it would fold over and cover the bottom of the pot (I never use those stupid bowls that attach to the bottom)

I never use that stupid cozy either.  Nah, it’s not stupid, just unnecessary.  I always have a pair of Gorilla Grip gloves at least, so use those instead.  As I recall, every part you can leave off is 1oz.  Bowl, 1oz.  Lid, 1 oz.  Stand, 1oz.  Cozy, 1oz.  I think the net savings on the orange part would be about an ounce, but it is structural – I envisioned a fix but lost motivation and put it back together.  A BRS-3000T saves 2.2 ounces, even with a mini-bic added in.

Has there ever been a report of the fins failing when only used to boil water (and no unusual circumstances)?  I can’t recall seeing one.

I had a first version of the Sol Ti burn up, I only boil water and rehydrate meals separately, and did not run it dry. It was very soon after it came out.  It burned similar to Brad A’s pictures. Jetboil asked for the unit back to send for some sort of metallurgical analysis but had already come out with a revised version which they had sent me as a replacement(never actually used and subsequently sold on gear swap since the instances I actually need a canister stove are very few and far between).

It burning up was actually my 3rd problem with it. I had numerous instances of the stove being unable to light or stay lit in conditions where the original PCS excelled.

I’m not particularly hard on gear and am use to fussy gear. I feel the Sol TI was just a lemon and had too many problems that they tried to rush a product to market for the new UL commercialism at the time.